Exped Ultra 6.5R sleeping mat review: “Light enough for backpacking, warm enough for winter, comfortable enough for the most pernickety of sleepers…”

Ever thought that you couldn’t have your lightweight sleeping mat and eat it? Exped’s new Ultra 6.5R kind of proves the contrary. It’s a mat you can use at ‘base camp’ or on the hill without feeling you’re losing out in either scenario.

Comfort Cradle helps hold your body in place on the mat

Not only is it four-season warm, luxuriously thick, and wide enough to cope with the sort of sleepers who regularly roll off pared-down, gramme-shaving, mummy-shaped minimal mats, it’s also – drum roll – impressively light and compact. It’s the ideal solution for anyone who wants a good night’s sleep, but baulks at packing in a bulky, heavy mat. On top of that, it incorporates years of Exped sleeping mat refinements that mean it just works – stuff like Exped’s two-valve inflation system, the efficient and eccentrically named Schnozzel inflation sac and Comfort Cradle side chambers that help keep you on the mat not the floor of your tent.

Synmat technology
Exped’s Synmat technology is well established and effective, but with Synmat Plus they’ve upped the R value to a four-season friendly 6.9 by adding a layer of reflective foil to radiate heat back to the body. From the outside, you’d never know it was there, but the result is an impressively warm mat despite the modest pack size and weight. It just works.

Also very cool is the Schnozzel inflation sac, which we reckon is probably the best mat inflating gubbins out there. It’s a giant, lightweight – 80g – roll-top bag that acts as a high volume air pump when popped onto the ‘in’ valve of the mat. It took around three quite casual minutes and five, I think, air cycles to fully inflate the mat. You could, of course, simply blow into the valve old school style, but for the sake of saving 80g, I’m in Team Schnozzel every time.

Once it’s been Schnozzeled, the result is an impressively big, thick rectangular sleeping pad that should cope with even quite wayward sleepers. I found it okay in a generously-proportioned one-person tent, but it’s worth being aware that it is large and could overwhelm smaller tents or take up more than its fair share of a two-person shelter. Actual dimensions are 183 x 65 x 9cm, the Mummy version is, according to the specs, the same width at the shoulders, but obviously way narrower elsewhere.

Schnozzle is one of the best pump-bags we’ve tried

The Comfort Cradle tech, basically the side air chambers are larger to hold you unobtrusively on the mat, is a subtle but surprisingly effective touch. I didn’t find myself off the mat once. And it is really comfortable. In the past I’ve often used a skimpy, lightweight mat for backpacking, but something heavier and thicker for car camping. The Ultra 6.5R happily did both gigs, light and compact enough not to weigh you down, but cushy enough that you don’t find yourself pining for a chunkier mat even when weight and space aren’t at a premium. No hip-bones pressing into the floor here.

The other thing I really liked was Exped’s two valve system. There’s one inlet valve, which allows for easy micro-adjustments to air-pressure when you’re searching for that Goldilocks balance of cushion and comfort and a separate, unobstructed, outlet valve that means you can deflate the mat in seconds when you break camp. In the dark, a cord on the inlet valve means you can’t mix them up and accidentally deflate your mat. I didn’t, honest.

Comfortable and warm, yet light and packable – what’s not to like?

Mostly the mat just works brilliantly. You’re not having to choose between lightness, compactness and sleeping comfort. It’s quiet and cushy in use, the recycled Bluesign-certificated polyester 20-denier ripstop fabric is soft against your delicate, wind-burned cheeks and, says Exped, ‘three times stronger than conventional lightweight materials’. If it does puncture, a colour-matched repair patch kit is supplied; we’ve not needed it so far, touch wood, watch out for thorns, brambles, angry hedgehogs etc.

If you do prefer a mummy-shaped mat, you can opt for that version of the pad – same spec and tech, lighter weight. Or, if you’re in a committed outdoor relationship, there’s also the 6.5R Duo, a double mattress version, that weighs in at just 825g, though it seems to be slightly thinner at 7cm rather than 9cm. Don’t split up mid trip though or you’ll be battling for custody of the sleeping pad…

Very reasonable pack size given its warmth rating

Last but very much not least, when the first rays of the sun strike your tent and you’re itching to pack up and hit the trail, the dedicated ‘out’ dump valve means deflating and rolling the mat up is quick and easy. Also the storage bag is pleasingly just large enough that there’s no desperate cramming of slightly oversized mat into sack, hurrah. It just makes life easier.

Verdict
Overall, the Ultra 6.5R is light enough for backpacking, warm enough for winter, comfortable enough for the most pernickety of sleepers, and everything about it just works. A great, lightweight all-rounder.

More info at: www.expeduk.com